The government’s not a fan of hit count manipulation. In the aftermath of the Minerva fiasco, one might say they are trying to provide a little redress to the squelching of critics such as Minerva.   Members of the cyber crime division at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency have begun investigations of four individuals, who unlike Minerva, actually supported the government online –albeit through the alleged manipulation of public opinion by boosting hits on their posts.  

The police booked four men, including a 49-year old man who heads a private academy, and are looking into the software they used to falsely boost hit counts on the order of hundreds of thousands of clicks at the popular Daum forum Agora.  

Police have quoted one of the men, surnamed Park, who explained that he boosted his pro-government posts in response to what he believed were phony hits on views that criticized the government during the protests against American beef imports.  Another suspect, surnamed Kang, was concerned his posts were not getting enough attention.

Investigators have started their investigation of these four in particular on the allegation that they were able to sway public opinion using their software-enhanced soapboxes.  It sounds like both sides have been reading a little Malcolm Gladwell, and only time will tell whether what these men did was indeed a crime or a new form of complex social dialogue (i.e. warfare).

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